Auditor says Brimfield treasurer didn't keep up with job

BRIMFIELD 
The town treasurer wasn’t doing her job and, as a result, the town’s financial books are still not fully rectified, an auditor told selectmen tonight.

“No offense to (Town Treasurer) Kirsten (L. Weldon), I just feel she was not doing her job in all aspects, not just with deposits but with paying the bills and her responsibilities just stopped,” Thomas Scanlon Jr. said. “I don’t know the reasons for it. I think Kirsten just stopped doing her job.”

In her defense, Ms. Weldon briefly said, “I’m not denying that I made mistakes. I had a very bad year. There’s a lot of reasons for that.”

Traditionally, the town gets an audit every year. But because of the June tornado, it skipped an audit in 2011. In the audit begun in 2012, Mr. Scanlon said, he found issues with bank statement reconciliations and brought them to the town’s attention.

It turned out the treasurer, who holds an elected position, wasn’t depositing town money in the bank in a timely fashion. But she wasn’t pocketing it, either, Mr. Scanlon said. He is a principal in the South Deerfield accounting firm Scanlon and Associates.

The town was short $55,000 in its payroll account for April, May and June 2012 until most of those missing deposits made it to the bank on Oct. 29. However, three deposits — totaling an estimated $2,500 — from that three-month period are still missing, Mr. Scanlon said.

“Someone fell asleep at the wheel,” Mr. Scanlon said.

Apart from the late-deposited tax revenue, no departmental receipts for the town made in April, May, June, July, August and September were deposited on time. Mr. Scanlon said his firm “sample tested” the deposits from July and September and found the larger ones made it to the bank in December.

“As it stands right now, all the departmental receipts going to the bank are caught up, right up to January,” Mr. Scanlon said. “So the deposits are, kind of, case closed. You’re up to date.”

Nevertheless, he said, he wants to monitor the deposits for the next three months.

“The aspect of holding deposits for six, seven months definitely doesn’t have public confidence,” Mr. Scanlon said. “But we did do some testing, specifically in that area, and the deposits were intact.”

Mr. Scanlon said the town’s general ledger is still off $27,000. He said he believes $16,000 of that has been identified in the form of more outstanding checks.

Mr. Scanlon suggested the town hold off submitting its free cash amount to the state for certification because the state will penalize it on the $27,000 variance.

“To do it now, they’re going to penalize you close to 30 grand. They’re going to take it away from you,” Mr. Scanlon said.

Mr. Scanlon said it also appears Brimfield overpaid by roughly $24,000 on health insurance for two former town employees last fiscal year, and made an extra payment of $41,000 in the previous fiscal year that the town didn’t get credit for. He said the town needs to do a complete reconciliation of its health insurance account.